Onion Harvest and Rain

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silver_ creek

Location: Washington, Western Cascade Foothills

Topic: Onion Harvest and Rain
Posted: Aug-19-2008 at 5:47pm

This is the first year that my onions are almost ready to harvest, and we're expecting rain. I pushed the tops over, and normally, I would pull them in a few days and let the sun cure them. But I am worried that the expected 1/4-1 inch of rain might ruin them. Is this true (Gary)? Should I pull them tonight and put them under cover?

Terry M.

gary

Location: Washington, Puget Sound Corridor

Posted: Aug-20-2008 at 5:18am

Terry,

Sorry I missed your post last night. I hope you decided to pull or cover them with plastic. But I also forgot to pull my onions (like I was planning at 3PM).

Yes, we should get them up and under cover to dry. It is quite late if you still have Walla Walla's in the ground. Most of the reds are also early relative to the longer storage types.

Most of the 'dry' onions for storage, like Copra, should still do OK if we don't leave them to get more water. WSU Puyallup's ET calculation for "dry onions" uses an August 18th harvest date.

I (we) have a busy morning before the showers get heavier this PM.

Gary

silver_ creek

Location: Washington, Western Cascade Foothills

Posts: 657

Posted: Aug-20-2008 at 6:59am

We only got a quarter inch last night, and it looks like we'll get some breaks from the showers. These are Copra; my Walla Walla's and shallots were harvested a few weeks ago. I'll pull them this morning and put them under cover.

Terry M.

gary

Location: Washington, Puget Sound Corridor

Posted: Aug-20-2008 at 6:26pm

I pulled mine this morning in my 3+ hour dry spell. Even got time to walk my granddaughter for five miles before the mist/rain started about 1PM (then dumped another 1/3rd inch between 2 & 3;30PM). I had 0.63" before 0600 when I reported into:

"CoCoRaHS"

I also prepared the last of my fall to spring crop beds this morning. Transplants in tomorrow.

PS - A couple of friends played a round of golf near Chehalis this morning in that dry time based on my forecast Monday. Others didn't want to tee off as early as I said they'd need to. Tough luck!

Gary

silver_ creek

Location: Washington, Western Cascade Foothills

Posts: 657

Posted: Aug-21-2008 at 7:00am

I did pull the Copras, braided and hung them under cover to dry. We got another .6 inches of rain yesterday afternoon. But now that bed is ready for kale transplants this weekend.

Terry M.

gary

Location: Washington, Puget Sound Corridor

Posts: 806

Posted: Aug-21-2008 at 10:01am

I plan to put cabbage and broccoli into mine but I also have beds for Brussels sprouts, kale, and OW broc and cauli.

Gary

growest

Location: Western British Columbia

Posts: 122

Posted: Aug-22-2008 at 7:34am
After more decades than I like to admit, I'm still learning so much about this veggie gardening deal!

I've always tried to harvest onions as late as possible, September if possible. We just got our garlic out of the ground here, sheesh! Not arguing, just amazed at how differently folks do things, and always suspecting I've got things to learn and improve.

Our Ailsa Craig spanish onions (150 feet of very nice big bulbs this year) are getting pulled as the kitchen demands, with the tops falling over now by themselves. Hadn't considered pulling them until the tops had dried up a lot, hmmm.

BTW, this has been far and away the best onion crop ever for us, these guys really seemed to like the cool spring/summer even if some of the humans were disappointed.

David911

Posted: Oct-08-2008 at 12:03am

I have some onions in the ground, don't remember what kind they are, but hadn't even heard that I needed to pull them up when it got wet. Can anybody give me the quick tour of why I'd need to push them over and hang them to dry?

Veggie girl

Location: Washington, Western Cascade Foothills
Posts: 39

Posted: May-06-2009 at 12:32pm

You knock them over to hasten drying, and pull them before it rains to dry them and cure them in the sun for storage.